and we learned late this afternoon that in fact speaker boehner and president obama had a phone call today. we don't know, however, what was said in that call. but reports are that some progress is being made in these negotiations. at least conversations continuing behind the scenes between the top leaders, larry. >> all right. a phone call. that's pretty good progress. many thanks. so let's just ask a couple questions here. does president obama have the whip hand in all these negotiations, and are the republicans about to be blamed big-time for falling off their own fiscal cliff? joining me now is ace pollster scott rasmussen. i just did a little tv gig with scott, who's in about 60 cities across the country. all right, scott. you heard timothy geithner. he said if they don't raise taxes on the rich, they were going to go over the fiscal cliff. but at the end of the day, if we do fall over the fiscal cliff, if taxes go december 31st, will the republican party be blamed? >> absolutely. right now, people aren't convinced that either the president or congressional republicans are serio